Pampas Jungle & Rurrenabaque

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We decided to fly to Rurrenabaque to save time instead of suffering the winding 18 hour bus ride into the Bolivian lowlands. It felt so good to fly and get to our destination in less than an hour! The plane we took only fit about 14 people and I could pretty much have a conversation with the pilot since I was so close to him, so that in itself was an awesome experience.

We landed safely and took the shuttle bus to the airport, which was about the size of an average house. Awesome. While waiting for our bus into town, we met half of our group: Chase, Lauren, and Katie from California. When we got to Rurrenabaque we quickly met the two Belgians in our group, Pieter and Bram, and packed 8 of us into a Jeep. The 2 and a half hour ride was a flash talking to Pieter and Bram about Belgium and getting to know them. We´ve met 4 Belgians total (all guys) on our trip so far and they are by far the sweetest guys in Europe I think.

We found that the Pampas jungle wasn´t really jungle jungle in terms of vegetation, but the exotic animals we saw were definitely worth the trip. On the first day boating down the Yacuma River, we saw loads of alligators basking in the sun with their mouths open to warm up their insides, since they are cold-blooded. We also saw massive black caiman crocodiles, toucans, vultures, paradise birds, turtles, monkeys, blue and yellow macaws, pink dolphins, and capibaras, which look like big brown guinea pigs the size of a fat dog.

When we arrived at our sunset camp, we picked our bunks with mosquito nets, watched the sunset and then played some volleyball: Luis (our guide), Bram, Pieter, and me vs. 4 other guides. Of course I was the only girl playing--story of my life I guess.

After a much needed shower we had dinner and then loaded back into the canoe with our head lamps to go check out the alligators at night. It´s crazy how much scarier the river is at night on the boat where you only have about 2 feet of visibility and their are red gator eyes glaring at you from all directions. We found a piece of shore where there were baby gators all over the place, and we got so close to Mama gator that Sim could have touched her snout if she wanted to. Of course, Sim was freaking out and tipped the boat more in the opposite direction trying to keep her distance.

When we got back to camp I went straight to bed because just that morning we had been in La Paz so it was a looong day. I woke up early in the morning ot monkeys going crazy outside the bunk stealing fruit from kitchen. Seemingly cute...but sneaky little buggers.

After our panqueque (aka pancake) breakfast we loaded into the canoe once again and headed off to go hunt for anacondas in the lowlands swamp. Luckily, Idigena Tours provided us with big black wellies because we were legit walking through squeegy swamp muck nearly up to the knees. My long legs definitely helped though, because the shorties just got swamp water in their boots when it was too deep. Initially we didn´t have any luck spotting an anaconda, but a bit further into the Pampas, Luis and another guide found a baby 3 meter one chilling in the swamp. It looked so small for an anaconda, but when I went to hold it up, it was so heavy! Mission 1 of the day accomplished.

In the afternoon after lunch and a siesta, we went onto the river one last time for Mission 2: piranha fishing. We found a nice spot next to a big log, loaded up our hooks with little chunks of meat and the feast began. The nibbles and tugs were incessant! The piranhas were so small, yet so many that they would just nibble off all the meat without even touching the hook. It was such a tease! Luckily, Luis is a pro so he caught one for us to look at before he let it go. Their teeth are like razors! Mission 2 barely accomplished.

Our last morning we went for a little hike to check out different types of plants and insects. We saw huge ants, termite nests the size of boulders, hornets nests in the shape of an armadillo, and fire ants. We also learned about the healing powers of the uña de gato vine, who´s waters apparently can help dissolve kidney stones... pretty cool. The best part was Luis making a swing out of a hanging vine at the end of the walk so we got to Tarzan it in the Bolivian jungle haha I was happy it didn´t snap in half while I was on it...

Once we got back to camp we had lunch, packed up and started the 4 hour journey back to civilization via boat and jeep. When we got back to shore, we let another group take our good jeep because they had a flight to catch that evening so we got stuck with a clonker with half functioning windows and a loose muffler, which we ended up losing on the bumpy road along the way. The worst/most hilarious part was the ridiculous amount of dust from the road that way accumulating in the car and all over the girls sitting in the back seat. There was so much of it caked onto their faces that they looked like they had a fake tan. HILARIOUS! I hadn´t laughed so hard in ages. Priceless. Needless to say, when we got to the hostel in Rurrenabaque, they took showers first. hehehe I will never forget that. Hopefully Lauren will send me the photos soon so I can post them for your enjoyment. hehehe

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